HPB-SB-11-8: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
mNo edit summary |
||
| (2 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown) | |||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
| notes = | | notes = | ||
}} | }} | ||
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Remarks on Madame Blavatsky's Manifestations and Illustrative Instances from the | |||
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Remarks on Madame Blavatsky's Manifestations and Illustrative Instances from the Experience of Mediums in this Country|11-7}} | |||
... | |||
{{HPB-SB-item | {{HPB-SB-item | ||
| volume =11 | | volume =11 | ||
| page = | | page =8 | ||
| item = | | item =1 | ||
| type = article | | type = article | ||
| status = | | status = proofread | ||
| continues = | | continues = | ||
| author =Bengough,S.E. | | author =Bengough, S.E. | ||
| title =Spirit Identity - Disquieting Speculations | | title =Spirit Identity - Disquieting Speculations | ||
| subtitle = | | subtitle = | ||
| untitled = | | untitled = | ||
| source title =Spiritualist | | source title = London Spiritualist | ||
| source details = | | source details = No. 442, February 11, 1881, p. 71 | ||
| publication date = | | publication date = 1881-02-11 | ||
| original date = | | original date = | ||
| notes = | | notes = | ||
| Line 26: | Line 29: | ||
}} | }} | ||
... | Sir,—Thousands will no doubt read with amazement and some discomfort of mind Colonel Olcott’s avowal, which lately appeared in your columns, that even after witnessing some 500 materialisations at the Eddys’, he is not a “Spiritualist” in theory; he does not believe in “the agency of departed ones.” What then in the name of all that is bewildering ''does'' he believe in? Occultism! Occult indeed! The author of ''Art Magic'' and ''Ghost Land'' devoted a whole life to occultism—in vain too—and found nothing beyond Andrew Jackson Davis after all. A strange discrepancy with the President of the Theosophical Society! But the latter may be right after all. “Spiritualism expands the faculty of belief to an alarming extent.” I am quite frightened sometimes to think how much I can take in or at least do not deny; and fear my mind must be going. No sooner has one comfortably settled down, after eighteen years of philosophical doubt and perplexity, into the decided conviction that “it must be the spirits of the departed,” and feels a right to a quiet undisturbed God for a little while before one “goes hence and is no more seen”—or is seen as it happens—than Colonel Olcott comes with his disagreeable occultism, “tales of travellers and stories of the Arabian Nights,” forsooth, to throw cold water on one’s enthusiasm and beckon to some horrid yogism. | ||
Do, Mr. Editor, if possible, throw a little light upon this matter, or if too much trouble for you, invite “M. A. Oxon,” or some other of your contributors to do so. You must have the ''Theosophical Journal'', ''Isis Revelata'', and Colonel Olcott’s books all at hand, and can easily help poor outsiders to some notion, however imperfect, what it all means. | |||
In conclusion, allow me, dear sir, as I have not seen you for ten years, when we met at Gerald Massey’s lectures, heartily to congratulate you on the true English pluck with which you have always kept to the fore in spite of circumstances, which must have sorely tried your temper. | |||
I am exceedingly glad you are so liberal in giving admittance to all sorts of opinions. Perhaps you will permit me to say how much I profited in the way of psychological speculation by Mr. Podmore’s most extraordinarily honest confessions in his interesting paper read before the B.N.A.S. If he turns to Professor Bain’s chapter on “Belief” in ''Mental and Moral Science'', I think he will find a clue to his own and others’ singular changes of opinion on Spiritualism and much beside. I myself date a new era of light to my own mind from Mr. Podmore’s revelations. | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|S. E. Bengough.}} | |||
66, Riederer Strasse, Darmstadt. | |||
{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | {{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | ||
{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}} | |||
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px> | |||
london_spiritualist_n.442_1881-02-11.pdf|page=13|London Spiritualist, No. 442, February 11, 1881, p. 71 | |||
</gallery> | |||
Latest revision as of 11:42, 12 December 2025
< Remarks on Madame Blavatsky's Manifestations and Illustrative Instances from the Experience of Mediums in this Country (continued from page 11-7) >
...
Spirit Identity - Disquieting Speculations
Sir,—Thousands will no doubt read with amazement and some discomfort of mind Colonel Olcott’s avowal, which lately appeared in your columns, that even after witnessing some 500 materialisations at the Eddys’, he is not a “Spiritualist” in theory; he does not believe in “the agency of departed ones.” What then in the name of all that is bewildering does he believe in? Occultism! Occult indeed! The author of Art Magic and Ghost Land devoted a whole life to occultism—in vain too—and found nothing beyond Andrew Jackson Davis after all. A strange discrepancy with the President of the Theosophical Society! But the latter may be right after all. “Spiritualism expands the faculty of belief to an alarming extent.” I am quite frightened sometimes to think how much I can take in or at least do not deny; and fear my mind must be going. No sooner has one comfortably settled down, after eighteen years of philosophical doubt and perplexity, into the decided conviction that “it must be the spirits of the departed,” and feels a right to a quiet undisturbed God for a little while before one “goes hence and is no more seen”—or is seen as it happens—than Colonel Olcott comes with his disagreeable occultism, “tales of travellers and stories of the Arabian Nights,” forsooth, to throw cold water on one’s enthusiasm and beckon to some horrid yogism.
Do, Mr. Editor, if possible, throw a little light upon this matter, or if too much trouble for you, invite “M. A. Oxon,” or some other of your contributors to do so. You must have the Theosophical Journal, Isis Revelata, and Colonel Olcott’s books all at hand, and can easily help poor outsiders to some notion, however imperfect, what it all means.
In conclusion, allow me, dear sir, as I have not seen you for ten years, when we met at Gerald Massey’s lectures, heartily to congratulate you on the true English pluck with which you have always kept to the fore in spite of circumstances, which must have sorely tried your temper.
I am exceedingly glad you are so liberal in giving admittance to all sorts of opinions. Perhaps you will permit me to say how much I profited in the way of psychological speculation by Mr. Podmore’s most extraordinarily honest confessions in his interesting paper read before the B.N.A.S. If he turns to Professor Bain’s chapter on “Belief” in Mental and Moral Science, I think he will find a clue to his own and others’ singular changes of opinion on Spiritualism and much beside. I myself date a new era of light to my own mind from Mr. Podmore’s revelations.
66, Riederer Strasse, Darmstadt.
Editor's notes
- ↑ Spirit Identity - Disquieting Speculations by Bengough, S.E., London Spiritualist, No. 442, February 11, 1881, p. 71
Sources
-
London Spiritualist, No. 442, February 11, 1881, p. 71